You can't make your home with half a dozen amazing and very individual felines without wanting to read about cats, so I've been searching for some well-loved cat literature. These short pieces were both great finds. Smith's work drops you into a fully realized science fiction universe with no explanation, and leaves you loving its feline fighters! Saki's "Tobermory" was more sobering, as it suggested our quickness as a species to destroy any other species that threatens or competes with us, even if we professed to loving them only moments before.
I've been an avid Dana Simpson reader since I first encountered Marigold Heavenly Nostrils and her best friend Phoebe, but these two titles did not live up to her previous work. Ozy had a few good chuckles in it and definitely tangled with diversity (pretty ambitious for a comic) but it didn't have the sustained storylines of the other Phoebe books. The latest Phoebe offering just didn't live up to its predecessors. It seemed far thinner, for one thing, and only dealt with one small arc; a forced effort, I think.
My Early American Literature class finally made it through the first volume of the Norton. I hope the slightly more modern readings will be of greater interest to them. I'm asking them to compare "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" with Partridge's Dark Harvest, so fingers crossed for good results on that front.
And, finally, some seasonal reads. Unseen Attraction was more atmospheric than truly scary, conjuring up damp London fogs and sinister figures lurking in alleys. I picked it up as a fun read, but it won me over with the study its author clearly gave to Victorian taxidermy and the literature of taxidermy (the topic of my dissertation!).
Behind You is somehow adorable (in drawing style) and terrifying at once. It doesn't scare you while you're reading it, but it sure makes you jumpy afterward!
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